Hi I’m new to fleshing, stretching and drying beaver, I’ve attached a photo of a coupIe that I am working on now and have a couple questions in regards to the white patches that don’t seem to be drying very well.

Should I have fleshed those areas better ?
Any other concerns from looking at the pictures ?

The room that they are in is at about 50 degrees with continuous air movement.

Any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated.

Yes that fat needs to come off. You can take something like a paint scraper or better yet a scraper made for hides to clean that off now. Keep the scraper flat and it will not damage the hide.

Yep, like Steve said, but it’s tough doing it when it’s almost dry. Looks pretty good for a first time flesher, do a few more and don’t a hole or two beat you down. The best still make holes. As you can probably tell, the gristle at the tail end is the hardest. Try different methods and knives too. I started with a razor sharp flesher on the beam, too many holes. Switched to fleshing over the leg for a couple years, and now I’m back to a good fleshing knife over a beam. From the head to the tail along the back I mostly use the sharp side, after the around the sides I can usually push it off with the dull sides. When you’re skinning it, it pays to clean skin around the face, the muscle around the front legs to the face is pretty tough to get off with the thin skin there.
Lookin good, good luck!

Thanks for the reply’s